These
are the best, though there are some others as well. The Covers Channel
... songs you like done by others ... is a bit weird but I am sure there
is a market (Channel 302). Velvet (Channel 304) plays songs from
contemporary vocalists. And songs you might hear being played on a bar
jukebox are on Rockbar (Channel 313). Those and a few more are only
around for the Summer, so listen while you can.

Go Lane Country

Country
star Chris Lane will be the July guest DJ on Go Country’s (KKGO, 105.1
FM) mid-day show. Lane is an artist on Big Loud Records and replaces
Michael Ray, who was the mid-day DJ during the month of June. Hear him
weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Big Ratings

“My
FM” KBIG (104.3 FM) earned it’s highest rating ever, or at least as
high as I can remember, in May: 5.8, easily beating second-place KTWV
The Wave’s (94.7 FM) 5.3 share of the audience. Looks like
family-friendly KBIG is the new era’s KIIS-FM (102.7 FM) which at one
time was the station the whole family tuned in ...

Rounding out the top-5 were KIIS-FM and KRTH (101.1 FM) tied at 4.8 and KOST (103.5 FM) at 4.7.

Abuse of Power

I
envisioned the possibility of great things with the merger of CBS and
Entercom. Even though I am against large group owners, this would be one
in which there is no debt due to the merger structure, leaving the
company free to do great radio.

From
what I’ve been observing, however, it appears that Entercom is no
better and may in fact be worse than debt-laden competitors iHeart and
Cumulus.

In a column from respected industry observer Jerry Del Colliano at InsideMusicMedia.Com,
Del Colliano talks of Entercom CEO David Field using his power to
prevent competitors from growing by refusing to sell stations to
companies that directly compete; that they have turned down an offer for
The Sound (KSWD, 100.3 FM) precisely for that reason; and that Entercom
hopes to build what could be called a sports monopoly through shrewd
moves.

Add to that the secret and small cutbacks at stations in cost-cutting moves that management hoped no one would notice.

That
is frightening, and it is why Congress needs to put pressure on the
Department of Justice and the FCC to not approve this merger. Entercom
is acting as an essential monopoly with as much power as Standard Oil
had prior to antitrust laws; this is bad for radio and bad for
listeners.